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One Direction
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Pop
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Out now
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Columbia, Syco
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Everywhere
Salma Tantawi
One Direction’s supposed hit, ‘What Makes You Beautiful’, returns to an earlier pop era belonging to the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync; prior to when electronic sounds ruled the scope of the musical landscape. This song is relaxed and clichéd, with lyrics that express young love using cheesy and inoffensive ways of expressing it.
The album fails to show any diversity or musical flair where the songs seem to flow in the same direction (pun unintended), regardless of whether it’s a ‘happy’ or ’sad’ song. Almost identical drum variations and snares are paired with guitar riffs and piano pieces to form the backbone of most of the tracks. The songs do, however, vary lyrically where ‘More Than This’ paints a wholesome heartbroken picture; the exact opposite of the overly energetic ‘Up All Night’.
From the start, it’s been obvious that the cards hold a love-them-or-hate-them future for One Direction. Their insanely questionable popularity is likely to triple the criticism they get, especially for those who aren’t particularly taken by them.
However, compared to a lot of the painfully bad music we hear these days, with offbeat vocals and cacophonic music compositions, One Direction may head in the right direction (pun intended) if only they’d work hard on moving away from the flock.